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Aloha,

I am in Dubai until Monday, then Madrid until Sunday - ping me if you're around.

Speaking of Madrid - I've been diving deep into our AI Maturity Index data prepping for my South Summit keynote next week (grab free tickets here).

What I discovered shows exactly what everyone else should be doing.

Before I share - quick question to you:

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Here are the 3 patterns that separate AI leaders from everyone else

1. They build systems, not just use tools.

Most people ask ChatGPT questions. The top 1%:

• Use MCP’s - Model Context Protocol- to interact with their work tools eg. email, calendar, CRM) directly from the LLM’s they use

• Create custom GPTs or Projects in Claude

• Build automated workflows in N8N to automate repetitive tasks

• … and more!

Our analysis shows automation-focused workers save 53% more time weekly (18 vs 12 hours) than those stuck in question-and-answer mode.

They're not necessarily more productive on paper, but they're buying back time to work on bigger problems.

2. They measure time saved, not tasks completed.

While others focus on "I used AI today," leaders track hours reclaimed and redirect that time to high-value work. Those saving 20+ hours weekly score 2.6 times higher on productivity than people who track zero time saved.

The gap is massive: heavy time-savers represent just 16% of users but dominate performance metrics.

3. They treat AI as a thinking partner, not a search engine.

Instead of asking for answers, they use AI to challenge their ideas, explore alternatives, and refine their thinking. Strategic users who employ AI for decision-making score 80% higher than question-askers across our dataset.

The brutal reality?

Based on 231,965 data points we’ve collected so far - only 1.2% of professionals exhibit all three patterns.

But they're not just slightly better.

They save nearly 4 times more hours every week (23 vs 6 hours) than traditional users, essentially buying back an extra day to focus on work that moves the needle. Same tools, completely different outcomes.

How do you use AI?

Hit reply and share 🙂 

Until next time,

Iwo